


When The Light Is Nearly Gone

by Cuda (Scylla)



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Supernatural, Superwho - Fandom, Torchwood
Genre: Angst Dean Winchester, Gen, Jack Harkness Fails At Pep Talks, Superwho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-28 10:54:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla/pseuds/Cuda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a hunt gone traumatically wrong, Dean's had it. There's only one person capable of giving him what he needs to move forward, and it's not Sam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When The Light Is Nearly Gone

The motel room was dark when Jack let himself inside. Intending to drop off the research book he'd borrowed from Sam, he hadn't anticipated to find anyone here. The car was missing, and after horrible things happened, the Winchesters tended to find an isolated spot to park the Impala and regroup.

Tonight had been horrible. Jack had seen enough to group it in the 'mistakes to never repeat' category and let it go. Everyone's instincts led them wrong, and a teenage boy under the amateur spell of his bullied victim had wiped out a gas station full of people. Now there was a frightened boy sitting in a jail cell with twelve murders on his conscience and a frightened boy sitting in his room with a soul earmarked for Hell by the local crossroads demon.

The crossroads demon they'd tried - and failed - to trap tonight.

The worst part of it was, this was St. Louis. The sort of thing wouldn't even make it above the fold, here.

Jack would be researching witchcraft after this, you bet.

A dark shape moved on the bed furthest from the window when Jack rose from picking the lock (got to keep your hand in) and pushed the door cautiously open.

Dean Winchester had him pinned to the door with a knife at his carotid pulse in less than a second. Jack raised his hands and after a second more, the blade fell away.

"What the hell, haven't you heard of knocking?" Dean demanded.

"Sent Sam on a hooch run? I didn't see the Mystery Machine out front," Jack shrugged.

"And that gives you the right to waltz in here?"

"I had something to return," another shrug, easy and fluid, "you know what book fines are these days."

Shaking his head, Dean stepped back and let Jack pass. He went back to the edge of the far bed and sat down. Jack put down the book he carried among the chaos of notebooks and papers on the scarred motel table, and glanced up at Dean after snapping on a lamp. Boy, he looked a wreck. "So, rough day," Jack opened.

Dean combined a short laugh and a shrug into one bitter gesture. He looked up at Jack, then away, and then back again, and in the process Jack could have sworn he'd changed masks. This one was aggressive. "Yeah, rough day. Don't you have somewhere you gotta be, 'Captain?' Night's young. Plenty of willing bodies in St. Louis."

Jack put on a patently thoughtful expression. "Nothing pressing. Where's Sam?"

"Hooch run."

"Why didn't you go with him? I thought that's what you, you know, _do,_ " Jack seated himself on the edge of the opposite bed, smoothing out the folds of his coat as he waited for an answer. He had better things to do, sure; had a whole new concept of magic-as-technology to study now, for starters. But he knew a broken soldier when he saw one. "Never leave a man behind. Oorah."

"What are you, my dad?" Dean waved a dismissive hand at Jack, "I didn't miss curfew. Hunt went tits up, two kids' lives are screwed, there's a morgue full of dead bodies and I've had it, Jack. I'm _tired._ "

"You let your teammate walk out that door with a pissed-off crossroads demon loose in St. Louis because you're _tired?_ " Jack demanded. He pivoted, knees almost touching Dean's, and bent until their eyes met. He watched Dean square his jaw, narrow his eyes, and then... collapse.

"That kid killed a whole gas station full of people because we screwed up," Dean's voice roughened, "That's on us. And you know how many other things are on us? Way too many. Bobby's gone. Cas is gone. The Leviathans are still out there, and we don't even know how to start on them. They're eating people. We screw up and the world dies bloody."

Jack grabbed the back of Dean's head like the scruff of a bad puppy, and forced him to look up. The shock in Dean's eyes showed a pinhole of light through the man's defenses, and Jack went for it head-on.

"You want to talk about dying bloody?" He snarled, realizing with a start that Dean responded more to anger than sympathy, "You want to talk about mistakes? Let me run you through a few of mine."

" _Look--_ " Dean broke in. Jack shook him once, hard, and he stopped.

"I'm a murderer, Dean," Jack growled, "I'm a conman. For a while, I was a torturer, and let me tell you, I was _good_ at it. I traded a dozen kids to aliens. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm all about collateral damage, just like that angel you talk about so much, and let me tell you - it's easier to sleep at night over a mistake than a **decision**. But no matter how much I hate the things I've done, I would NEVER leave a teammate exposed just to wallow in self-pity."

Dean's eyes flashed. Jack gripped him a little harder; kept his gaze cool and steady.

"You guys have been through a lot," Jack said in a gentler tone, "believe me, I understand. But if I can live with myself, so can you."

"Big deal," Dean huffed, "you got no choice."

"And you do," Jack released Dean then, dropping his hand to swat his shoulder fondly, "which makes you a better man than me. Call Sam, we'll take my jeep." He led the way to the parking lot, leaning sideways to snap off the table lamp. Dean got up a little more slowly than Jack, but before the light went off, he was gratified to catch the obvious relief on Dean's face when Sam picked up.

"...Yeah, hey, Sam? Look, where are you? I don't think it's a good idea to split up until we nail that son of a bitch. Jack's with me, we're on our way."


End file.
